


Darkness Incarnate

by SBlackmane



Series: Unrequited [5]
Category: Fable 3 (Video Game)
Genre: Anger, Deception, F/M, Facing The Enemy (The Real One), Family Secrets, Fear, Major Fable 3 Spoilers, Mind Games, Secrets, Stress, Suddenly Things Click Into Place For The Hero, depictions of violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-11-30 04:06:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11455626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SBlackmane/pseuds/SBlackmane
Summary: Something dark and twisted waits in the shadows beyond the shifting sands of Aurora, a place once thought to be nothing but an empty desert, but proves to be Adalia's greatest challenge yet. Can she pull herself together long enough to survive? Can she protect Albion from this newly realized threat? Or will she only come to regret every choice she ever made, once given a taste of the power over life and death? Regardless, it seems the Princess of Albion will learn some things she didn't know about her dastardly brother, out there in that desert, and the secrets he's harbored unbeknownst to her.Secrets that will change Albion's fate.





	Darkness Incarnate

**Author's Note:**

> (This is basically what happens when you send an angry, hurt, broken, grieving, and vengeful Princess to the white hot desert)
> 
> (Mind the sand, and whatever you do, don't let go of the light.)

     The ship was attacked in the night, pirates most likely, though Adalia couldn't be sure. There was no time to find out. None of them were prepared for the sudden cannon fire, and come morning, they were shipwrecked. Walter calling for Ben, and Spark barking incessantly at something was what woke her up. Face down in the sand, dehydrated, nearly drowned, and a miracle she survived, with not but a splitting headache as evidence she'd been injured in any way. Making it to shore had been the hardest part. She groaned as she peeled herself from the sand.

     "Are you alright?" she heard Walter ask as she sat up, rubbing her temple.

     "Yes," she quickly replied, hauling herself to her feet. "Ben's not here?" she asked.

     "No," he replied. "Looks like we didn't all make it. I only hope...Well, maybe he washed up somewhere else. I'm sure that's it." 

     Walter's words did nothing to lighten the mood. Adalia had no idea where they were, though they'd come too far to be wrecked off an Albion coast. She shielded her eyes to scan their surroundings, seeing nothing but sand, a steep, and rocky cliff, a cave, and ocean waves quietly lapping the shore. Nothing on the water, nothing but bits of broken wood, the remnants of the ship they commandeered.

     "Anyway," Walter turned and looked around, then sighed. "The only way forward seems to be through a rather ominous cave." 

     And but of course it had to be a cave. Just their luck. Walter was sketchy about caves, didn't like them at all, and frankly, neither did Adalia, considering what happened the last time she found herself trapsing through one. But they pressed forward anyway, having nowhere else to go. Gods only knew what sort of dangers they'd find lurking within. She checked her pistol, and the powder seemed dry enough. She prayed it would still fire properly if need be.

     "Before we go any further..." began Walter as they entered the mouth of the cavern. "I'd just like to say one thing...Balls!" he screamed, cursing, hearing his voice echo through the cave. Ah, maybe that would lighten the mood. Adalia hoped and prayed Ben was alright. She rather liked him. He was a good man. Smartmouthed, but good nonetheless.

     "So this is what Aurora looks like then," remarked Walter as they trudged through the cave. 

     Adalia looked up to eye the murky ceilings, the stalactites that dripped down, no doubt soaking up the only moisture to be found, washed up ocean current. For aside from tide pools, the rest of the cave was very dry and sandy and...dark, of course. 

     "I was hoping it would be a little less...cavey," Walter continued. Spark was yapping ahead of them. "Ah looks like the dog's found something. Never know, could be a luxury inn," he joked, then sighed, as squeaks and squeals could be heard. "Bats," he muttered, shaking his head. "He found bats. Good work boy. Bats are exactly what we need right now."

     Adalia would have laughed, but now was no time for laughter. Gods only knew what they would find in this cave, and Gods only knew what they would find in Aurora. Things didn't exactly turn out as planned. They were lucky to still be alive.

     They continued through the cave, and it widened out at the end of the next passageway, to reveal something quite interesting. Adalia had strange butterflies in her stomach just then. The hair raised on the back of her neck. Some sort of abandoned ruins were ahead of them, hallowed out. Steps and walkways were carved into the stone inside the cavern. 

     Hard to tell if it were a cave once, or a castle, as the sand and rock seemed to blend into the manmade sections of the hall. It was likely to be hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years old. And below, over the bannister, at the floor of the cave, there was something odd. Something that glowed. A sort of eerie red glow, a barrier of sorts, blocking a passage through the floor.

     "What the hopping Hobbes is that?" Walter exclaimed aloud. "It must be protecting something. Like the way out, most likely," he said hopefully. "Well, I'll tell you one thing." He turned to her. "We haven't got this far, haven't got this many people behind us, to end up dying in some forsaken, far-off hole in the ground."

     "Aye, that we haven't," she raised a brow. "Shall we go down then, and have a look?" 

     He nodded, and so the two pressed forward, Spark reluctantly following, whining a little. He didn't like the place, and Adalia didn't blame him. But Walter was right. They'd come too far to turn back now. Adalia only hoped and prayed she got to see Lydia again. She couldn't access the Sanctuary to check on her, or even let Jasper know she and Walter were still alive. 

     She guessed whatever barrier that was on the floor, it kept her from using some of her Heroic powers. Here was to hoping she could still use magic. While Walter wasn't looking, she discreetly checked to make sure, conjuring a small flame with the gauntlet. A miracle. It still worked. Maybe it was something else then.

     "Well, wherever we are, it seems we weren't the only people to get stuck in this damned place," Walter muttered.

     At the bottom, Adalia could make out a few skeletons, giving her chills at the sight of them. Adventurers, perhaps, who might have also crashed to shore, and never found their way out, dying in this godsforsaken cave. Surely that wouldn't be their fate as well. They searched their remains for any clue as to who they were, or any other useful information, like what exactly it was they were looking for, that perhaps she and Walter could find, in order to get them out. Some papers lie next to one of the corpses.

     "I found something," she called to Walter, on the other side of the room, holding up a slip of paper. "A note. 'It speaks to us all. Darkness incarnate. We know now we can never escape it'. That doesn't sound very good at all." She read over the words once more, trying to decipher them. Darkness incarnate?...And once more the chill snaked down her spine that she felt when learning she'd travel to Aurora. Hadn't...hadn't her brother come here before? On an expedition?...Were these his men?

     Quite suddenly, she wished she'd woken Logan from slumber, and demanded answers from him. Demanded to know what happened to him when he was abroad to turn him into such a cold, ruthless man. What he had seen, what he had done, and, simply put, why he stopped talking to her those years ago. Cut her out of his life, all but completely, making them into the strangers they'd become to one another.

     But fear of him keeping her prisoner in the castle kept her from rousing him. So instead she'd escaped through the Catacombs and found Walter, Ben, and Page in the sewers, giving the go ahead to proceed with their plan to steal a ship. She let anger get the better of her, and ignored all better sense that night, but the following morning she came to her senses. If she wanted the kingdom, wanted the Crown, she'd do it the right way, and help her allies take Logan's army by storm. Of course, now she was second guessing that decision.

     Something was very off about this cave.

     "Hey, I've got something too," Walter called back to her, rising to his feet. "One of these poor sods left a journal. Most of the pages have disintegrated, but...Well, you can still see plenty of weird symbols. Eh, it's mostly gobbledygook anyway. I mean listen to this nonsense. 'Luminous spirits of the sands, impart daybreak and gleam under a quiet moon'." He chuckled. "What's that suppose to-"

     Just then, something happened. There was a flash of light, some sort of runic markings spouting from the pages, and then...the barrier opened.

     "I don't think that was just nonsense, Walter," Adalia remarked as she edged closer to where he stood, as the barrier went from red to a lavender shade of purple, glowing, and then disappeared entirely. He laughed a little in surprise.

     "Well, look at that," he marveled. "Can you believe I did that? Hmh."

     The floor opened to reveal a winding staircase, leading down. Adalia hoped and prayed it led out, but couldn't help but feel a tingling on her skin as she and Walter descended the stairs. It was awfully dark and gloomy down there. 

     "Em, maybe going down isn't such a good idea," Walter remarked.

     "Well, we very well can't go up. Only one way to go." Adalia said, and Spark yapped beside her.

     "Oh yeah?" he said to the dog. "Well, why don't you lead the way if your so tough?" he asked Spark, and his response was more barking, and growling, then slowly pattering ahead of them. At the bottom of the stairs was complete and absolute darkness. Adalia could hear Walter getting flustered beside her. Oh but weren't they lucky. Just when she was about to expend her willpower and use magic, Spark came running back to them, carrying some sort of stick in his mouth. A torch, gods bless him.

     "Ah you little genius," Walter praised, as Spark dropped the torch to the floor in front of him.

     "Good boy, Sparky." Adalia scratched his ears as Walter lit the torch, lighting the path ahead of them.

     It was very strange down that corridor. Dark, nothing but shadows, dancing in rhythm with the fire light, they almost made inhuman shapes. Unlit candles littering the sides, and more skeletons. A number of them. Whoever had been here before was either stranded or...killed, by something. But by what? What could possibly thrive in an abandoned ruin in pitch black?...Was it even possible that there was a way out? There had to be. Surely whoever built this ruin, temple, or whatever it was, did not leave their only exit to the sea. Without so much as a ship to sail home.

     Ahead was a draw bridge, with a mechanism on the other side of the gap. One of them would have to jump down to the broken walkways below to get to the other side and activate it, in order for all of them to cross. Adalia was the most limber, and adept at this sort of thing. Perk of being a Hero, she supposed, that diving headfirst into dangerous caves was now her specialty, so leaping down to ominous depths of ancient ruins would be too. So she lept down, leaving Walter and Spark, to dart across the broken ramparts to the other side. 

     Ahead, there was another barrier, up on a platform, similar to the one they encountered before. She hoped to hell they could open it, in similar fashion as the last. Finding the lever to raise the bridge, she tugged on it, with all her strength, until it finally relented, though the entire cave rumbled and shook in its wake, slabs of rock tumbling from the ceiling as the bridge stretched across and Walter was able to safely move forward, along with an excited Spark.

     There was an odd noise as he crossed, and they searched for it. Sounded like whispers. That couldn't be good.  
 Walter was able to use more verses from the journal they picked up to open the barrier in front of them, so through it they went, as once more, a sinking feeling crept over Adalia, and the barrier resealed behind them.

     "Um...you ever get the feeling someone's playing games with us?" Walter asked.

     "All. The. Time," Adalia responded with a sigh, staring at the sealed barrier. Now they had no other choice but to press forward. And almost instantly she realized why she had that sinking feeling.

     _...The light you bring will die...The light inside you will die...All that you are will die..._

     The eerie voice that spoke those words startled both Adalia and Walter, both searching for the source of the sound, but not finding it.

     "Who's there?" Walter asked. "Show yourself!"

     Nothing. But Spark was incessantly whining. Something was in that corridor with them. Adalia was certain of it.

     ...Out of the dark came multiple sets of eyes, glowing eyes, to glare right at them. Then a maniacal laugh, one that chilled Adalia to the bone.

    _The Children are here to play..._

     The shadows descended upon them, taking shape. These creatures. The children of the darkness. With demon eyes and wings, these were the creatures that killed the men, whose dusty bones now littered the floor?...They clawed at Adalia, who struck with her sword, firing all six shots in her revolver until they slunk back into the darkness. Waves of them came, and she could even hear Spark's snarl as he gnashed at them with teeth. Walter was reeling. 

     She conjured flame, pausing before releasing it, letting it charge, to travel a further distance, scorching the creatures. They hissed and shrieked in horror. They didn't like light, did they? Which meant fire magic was very affective on them, to some small blessing.

     _Be corrosive...Be pernicious...Be diseased...Be devoured..._

     The ominous voice taunted them as they fought. 

     _Do you feel the darkness swarming around you?...Do you feel it creep its torturous path through your mouth, your eyes, until it eats away inside you?...Tell me how it feels..._

     It felt annoying. And she felt pissed. That's how she felt. She didn't feel afraid, or feel any darkness creeping inside of her, for there was already something there. Other emotions that fueled her, and had since the night she left Bowerstone castle and became the Hero of Brightwall. Hurt, broken, confused, and lonely, but not afraid. Angry, hateful, as she snarled, then lunged and kicked one of the creatures away from Walter. She was not about to let them suffer the fate of those men that littered the floor. She'd come too far, done too much...seen too much...to turn back now. But Walter on the other hand...

     "Keep fighting! We have to keep fighting!" he pressed, encouragement in his words, but not in his voice. He was frightened, wasn't he?

     _You're tainted...The stain will never wash out...The sun will never shine upon you again...Tainted, broken little toys..._

     Why did that sound so familiar to her? The part about broken toys?...It didn't matter, they would still fight, and Adalia would never stop fighting. Never would she allow herself to be weak again...Finally, the shadowy creatures dispersed. But she and Walter were still shrouded in darkness. They just had to keep moving. There was nothing else to do. 

     Walter led the way with the torch, cautiously pressing forward through the passageways, the light burning on the end of the stick being the only thing keeping them from being completely engulfed in night within the ruin...Walter wasn't keeping it together very well. He freaked at the sight of bats flying past them, confusing them at first for more of the demonic creatures that attacked. His resolve was failing him. He was claustrophobic as well, and Adalia had to get him out of that place before he went completely mad...

     Spark cowered and whined under Adalia's feet, almost tripping her. Though he was typically no cowardly dog, even he was riled up by this place. Adalia took a steady breath through her nose as she absentmindedly reached to pet him, following Walter forward through the darkened hall.

     A series of lefts and rights, then steps leading further down, further into the dark pit of gloom in which they were trapped. They descended to the next level of the ruin, leaves, dust and sand skittering across the worn path, or was it insects? Crawling little things, whatever they were, and all the while Spark whining still beside them. An eerie draft wound its way through the halls and reached them. Cold, biting, gnawing at their skin. 

     Unbelievable, considering they were in the middle of a desert.

     "Damn this book and whoever wrote it," muttered Walter, speaking of the journal he possessed. "Bastards. Why didn't they tell us what was down here?...Darkness Incarnate...like we're supposed to know what that means."

     "Maybe they didn't know either Walter. This place is ancient. Let's just...let's just worry about getting out of here, alright?" Adalia put a hand on the old man's shoulder, trying to ease discomfort, but it probably didn't help much.

     "Alright," he muttered, and they kept moving. "It won't stop," he told her. "It won't stop til it kills us."

     "It won't get us Walter. We're going to get out of here," Adalia said firmly.

     Through the passage they went until finally...a staircase leading back up. Thank the Gods. Could it be they'd found the exit? Was it blocked, like the others? Could they use the journal to get out of it?...Both felt a sudden breeze, certain this time it meant that there was an opening somewhere, and picked up pace as they raced up the stairs. 

     At the top, it leveled off and there it was again. That sound. This time, Adalia was certain she knew what that diabolical whisper meant that snaked its way into their ears. Trouble.

     A gust of wind blew out the torch, shrouding them in total darkness.

     "No! Not the light!...Not the bloody light!" exclaimed Walter, stricken with fear.

     "It's alright Walter," she said, but he wasn't listening.

     She could hear him feverishly striking flint, trying to get the torch lit again, the darkness choking him in fear.

     "Come on, work, dammit," he cursed, striking flint. "Those things are all around us! Come on, come on, come on!" he begged the flint. Finally it sparked, the torch revived, and there, in front of Adalia, and behind Walter was...

     Walter let out a gasp and the horrific creature he saw, waving the torch at it vehemently, and it disappeared. Adalia scanned the corridor, searching for it, but found nothing. It was toying with them. Kept to the shadows, frightened them, and...it enjoyed their fear, didn't it? Fear was what fueled the monsters dwelling here?

     "Balls," she heard Walter mutter quietly.

     "It's just trying to scare us. It'll be alright." Adalia tried to sooth with words, but Walter was still rattled. He was losing his mind, wasn't he? The dark, the shadows, the murk and gloom, the confined space...It was too much, and they wouldn't make it much further if they didn't get out now. She grabbed his arm and they pressed onward, seeking the way out that both were sure was nearby.

     _We are coming...we will devour your kingdom..._

     The creature taunted them once more, scaring the hell out of Walter, who picked up pace through the passageway, and Adalia stumbled to keep up. Ahead, more of these...Children, descended upon them.

     _There will be no bargains...There will be only darkness...The Children command it..._

     Once more Adalia pulled out her pistol and rapier, knocking them back to buy her time to power her flames. It wasn't enough, and they overwhelmed fairly quickly, knocking her to the floor. In a blood rage she hauled herself to her feet, slashing aimlessly, no longer caring about form and posture, all of her combat training going right out the window as she angrily hacked at them, firing flames at them to drive them back. 

     _You bring the light but it betrays you...It knows you are not worthy of its toxic gleam..._

     She didn't care. She didn't bloody well fucking care. She ignored the incessant voice taunting her, trying to break her and Walter, as Walter himself was backed into a corner, waving the torch about, trying to hold back the shadowy things as Adalia slashed at them. Shot after shot rang from her pistol and she could smell the smoke, almost taste the after-burn, hitting the 'children' so hard with her blade it made sparks. The creature laughed maniacally once more in the darkness.

     _Do you want to see my face?...Do you want to see my face?!..._

     By a stroke of luck, she managed to fight her way through the mob, back to Walter, when she heard something that truly disturbed her.

     _Did the blind Seer not tell you about us?...Did she not warn you?..._

     It laughed coldly along with that statement. How could it know about...

     Walter could take no more of the creature's voice, clamping his hands down over his ears, then yelling, "Quiet!!" He then threw the torch, and Adalia watched as it sailed into the pitch, and then struck the creature, who had been lurking nearby, making it scream in pain. In a puff of eerie smoke, it disappeared.

     "It's gone," Walter said breathlessly. "The bastard's dead and gone, and we're getting out of here."

     Adalia couldn't agree more with that. Helluva day to be a Hero.

* * *

     She woke to a blinding light. She could barely remember what happened. It seemed so hazy, like a mist, clouding her. But slowly it came back to her. She was...moving. Someone was carrying her somewhere. She could see things moving by above her, as she lay on her back, dry mouthed, exhausted, starving, probably bleeding too, with no clue where she was, or who was carrying her.

     _You let him die...You let us take him...But you're glad, are you not?...You wished him pain...You wished him undone, unthreaded, unliving..._

     A voice in the darkness had said that to her, taunting her, trying to pull at her guilt. She'd been separated from Walter, who was carried off by the creatures waiting in the shadows, and Adalia had to fight tooth and nail to find him, circling back through the ruin to find another way into the central chamber where it took him. Finding nothing but shadows, darkness seeping through the floor, overflowing like a flood of black ink, trying to taint her, trying to corrupt her. 

     And this same darkness was trying to seep its way into Walter. It had prayed on his fear, and would have succeeded completely, had Adalia not found him, and fought her way out, with Walter's tired form slung over her shoulder, practically carrying him out. 

     He'd been blinded. Whatever power the darkness had over him, he couldn't see to make his way out, and Adalia had to drag him. He said it felt like the creature just took all the light out from inside him. He kept begging her to leave him behind when they made their way across the desert landscape beyond that ruin, but she refused. She just kept dragging him, until finally, she didn't have the strength any longer. She had to leave him if she were ever to get help.

     Then she wandered alone. Through endless waves of sand, mirages popping up every so often of the man she left behind, the man who was like a father to her, and guilt ran through her then. But she had to fight it. It would do no good for her to give up now. She had to keep moving, had to keep fighting...Had to...

     Then she woke. She'd fallen unconscious in the sand, but now...Where was she?

     "She's still alive," a woman had spoken above her, a woman she didn't recognize. "The other can't be far away." Then a face appeared that she never thought she'd ever see again.

     "Takin' a nap in the sun?" asked Ben, as he reached for her hand, and held it in his. "Typical royalty," he smirked. "You had me worried there for a while."  
 Adalia was too weak to move, or even speak, but she'd never felt so relieved.

     "W-Walter?" she stammered, struggling to make her mouth form the word.

     "Don't worry. We'll find him. You just sit tight, Princess," he said to her.

     It was then that she lost consciousness once more, and flitted in and out of such, seeing things moving by, being carted somewhere. The light...it was so bright. It blinded her with its beauty. The true meaning of 'aurora'. Where she was going...this was it, wasn't it? The place she'd meant to go when veered off course by the enemy ship attacking their vessel. The City of Aurora. 

     "Can you help them?" she heard Ben ask.

     "The young one will be fine," spoke the anonymous woman. "She is strong. We need to tend to the older one at once," she warned him.

     "Hang in there, Walter," she heard him say. Oh thank the Gods, Walter had been found. And she was losing consciousness once more.

     She woke to Spark whining and licking her face. She gingerly lifted her head to see a woman, shaven head, and white tribal paint accentuating her features. The woman who spoke to Ben, she realized, upon hearing her voice. Her eyes were kind, and full of wisdom that surpassed her own years.

     "You are awake. Good," she said to her. "My name is Kalin, and you are in the city of Aurora. I have much to tell you."

     "Walter?" Adalia looked around the room, finding him lying on a cot nearby, being tended to by a healer of some kind. Priestess or the like, that perhaps had some ability to heal the damage that had been done by the darkness.

     "He is fortunate to be alive," Kalin informed softly. "But we have seen his condition before. We may be able to help him."

     "Is there another of my friends here? In the desert, I thought I saw-" Adalia started to ask of him, when there he was. Striding over to where she lay on the floor. Ben Finn with his rakish smile. 

     "A devilishly handsome soldier by the name of Ben Finn?" he finished for her, making her chuckle. "You're not dead yet, my friend," he assured.

     "Please, come with me," said Kalin, and Adalia slowly pried herself from the floor, feeling quite a bit better than she did hours...or days, ago. 

     Ben helped her up graciously, and the two followed Kalin through the enigmatic temple they were in. She marveled at it. She'd never seen anything like it. Far removed from anything in Albion, and different from the ancient ruin she'd been in. 

     These people were earthly, very mystical in nature, and so estranged, compared to the attire and mannerisms she was accustomed to. She highly doubted their religion was anything like that of her own country. They'd probably never even heard of the ancient Avo and wicked Skorm, or the many cults to follow, had they? The Golden Oak? Any of it? It seemed likely they hadn't. Had they never heard of Heroes and their strength? Their will? Their power?...Or had they? How was she to know? She'd never been there. And now she saw why.

     "It's good to see you," Ben said beside her, drawing her from daydream. "When I was fished out of the local port, and Walter and you weren't there...well, I thought it was all over." He shrugged. "Then I realized I was just bein' an arse, and worked my charms to get a search party out for you."

     "I'm thankful you did," Adalia managed to say. "Bloody perfect timing."

     "Not that Kalin here needed much persuading," he said then with a smile, and Kalin turned back to them.

     "We are accustomed to misfortune," she said, then turned to Adalia. "Now it is time you saw our city," she said, ushering her through the large, intricate stone door. 

     The thick layer slowly shifted to the side, to reveal a candlelit path, and outside...it was bloody beautiful. And forlorn. The gloom of nightfall had consumed the desert colony, leaving it to drown in a pool of dust, sand, and sapphire blue from the sky above. Candles lit the windows, but hardly a person stirred in the city. As if hardly a person still thrived in it. It was...disturbing.

     "Welcome to Aurora. The city of nightmares," commented Ben, a little too ominously.

     "The Crawler did this," explained Kalin. "The being you fought in the desert caves. It appeared several years ago, bringing darkness and death." She escorted them down the path. "The few of us who still live have known nothing but fear since. We never know when it will come. And we cannot hope to defeat the creature and its spawn without an army, even with someone like you by our side." She glanced at Adalia. "Ben Finn speaks most highly of you, but you are not the first savior to come here."

     "What do you mean?" Adalia asked her. 

     "Please...walk down our streets, see for yourself. Then we may talk more," she said to her, gesturing with a hand that she proceed alone. 

     To see just what the creature, the Crawler, had done to the people of Aurora. She took a deep breath and parted ways with her and Ben, making her way down the lit path, stepping into the sandy streets. It was there that she saw it. 

     Few people that still dwelled within the walls of the huts, some of them stood outside in vigil, lighting candles, and leaving letters to lost loved ones pinned to the walls of shrines. Those not hiding in fear, for they no longer cared, no longer feared joining them, their last hope to be reunited with them. Some dead, trapped in an eternal nightmare, never to wake, and some missing, most likely never to return. It broke her heart. 

     This had happened every night, didn't it? Every night, so came the darkness incarnate, to plague these people, prey on their fears, and devour their light.

     Instantly her mind flashed to a mop of curly brown hair, Lydia's hair, her beautiful eyes, and sweet smile. She would die before she ever let this Crawler take her daughter. She was the reason Adalia fought so hard. But then her mind flashed to another. With dark hair, and equally dark, gloomy eyes. Logan. Had he seen this when he was here? Had he known about this creature? After a time, unable to bear anymore of it, she made her way back up the hill to the temple, where Kalin stood, over looking the dismal city.

     "Now you know what we have suffered," she said to Adalia solemnly. "But as I said before, you are not the first outsider to come here."

     "Who was the other?" Adalia asked.

     "His name was Logan. King of Albion," Kalin said, and the Princess gaped at her for a split second, unable to respond. 

     So Adalia had been right with that speculation. So it would seem Ben's remark just then was correct. That her brother had been keeping secrets. According to Ben he used to go on expeditions frequently, until a few years before. If memory served her right, that was when Logan began to outwardly change, behavior and mannerisms, quite drastically. After coming home from Aurora, he stopped talking to her, and became engrossed with royal duties, all but ignoring her presence in the castle completely. One of the reasons he hardly felt like a brother. For years they hardly existed to one another.

     Had the Crawler done that to him? Turned him into a monster?

     "He too faced the Crawler," said Kalin, to no surprise. "He saw all his soldiers killed by the darkness, and nearly died himself. But he survived thanks to our care. He left with a promise. That he would return with an army, and save us from the Crawler. But...he never returned. We never saw him again."

     Adalia took a deep breath. 

     "Logan is no noble man," she said. "I mean to take the crown, and right the wrongs he has done, to my own people, and yours. If you were to ally with us, lend us your ships, when I overthrow my brother, I promise I will return for that monster," she affirmed. 

     "Are you so certain you can defeat it?" Kalin asked, slightly shocked by Adalia's brazen attitude. Adalia nodded.

     "With Albion's army behind me, I believe I can. I will not stand idle while innocents are slaughtered," she stated. "Once before I was given a choice to turn away. To look the other way. I didn't give in then, and I wont now. I swear I will come for that creature's head."

     "Then I will be happy to stand with you," Kalin nodded. "And I pray you succeed, Hero."

* * *

     ..."You have survived a terrible ordeal, but you will be stronger for it," spoke the Seer. "With Kalin and the Auroran people on your side, you are finally ready to face your brother."

     "Why did you not speak of the Crawler, Seer?" Adalia asked. "Why was I not told of this threat before?"

     "Because it is only a piece of the greater puzzle that you did not yet need," she answered enigmatically. "It is time, now, for you to gather your allies, and take Bowerstone castle. It is time for you to be the ruler Albion needs...and deserves."

     With those words, the Seer disappeared, and would say no more, and soon the Princess, and aspiring Queen of Albion, left the swirling mist of her vision to return to the sands of Aurora, left with little answers to the questions that burned within. Adalia couldn't help but be frustrated by this, but...It seemed she already had the most imperative answer for herself. Perhaps she didn't need Theresa's advice at the moment, because she already knew. She let out a sigh and she stood shrouded in mist.

     Face her brother she would then.

     Only this time it would be on the battlefield.

* * *

     "Oh thank heavens you're alive, madame!" said Jasper quite joyfully, followed by, "Oof!" when the Hero of Brightwall hugged him unexpectedly, upon her return to the Sanctuary.

     "Oh I've never been so happy to see you Jasper!" she exclaimed as she embraced him. He cleared his throat, taken completely by surprise at the unprofessional show of affection.

     "Ah, yes, well..." he smiled as he peeled Adalia from him to inspect her. "Madame, you look dreadful!" he remarked.

     Yes, she did. She looked absolutely dreadful.

     Ripped jacket, dust and dirt on her boots and sleeves, sweat making her hair cling to her forehead, and bags under her eyes, no doubt. Scrapes and bruises, scars to add to her growing collection of them. She hadn't slept. Not since she arrived in Aurora, and waited patiently for the healer to work her magic on Walter, biting nails, hoping and praying he woke up. The healer made it clear that so few ever wake once the darkness takes hold.

     Thankfully, he did, but he was lucky to have survived his ordeal. As was she, but she hardly cared at the moment what she looked like, or how starving she was. She hardly cared for her own welfare above that of another. She was able to return to the Sanctuary, and after sweeping Jasper into a suffocating hug, she tarried over to the map, grabbing the magnifying glass sitting on the edge. 

     "How is Lydia?" she asked, slight tremor in her voice, as she leaned over the map, magically enlarging the device as to peer into the window of her home in Brightwall.

     "Oh she's perfectly fine, Your Grace," he assured, just as the window was in view, and through it she could see Sofia sitting in a rocking chair, Lydia in her lap, head on her shoulder, being read a bedtime story. Almost asleep, her big brown eyes fluttering closed. Absolutely darling.

     "Thank heavens," she said breathlessly.

     "Dare I ask what happened to you?" Jasper inquired with a lofted brow.

     Adalia sighed. "It's difficult to explain but...I managed to gain more allies in Aurora, and..."

     "And?"

     "And...Well, let's just say a Hero's work is never done." She chuckled half-heartedly, though inwardly cringing at what she experienced out in the desert. Better he not know, for the time being. No sense in having her butler worry for no reason. She was perfectly fine...wasn't she?...She rested her elbows on the table and sighed.

     "I want to ask you something, Jasper," she said quietly, and carefully. "Will you be honest with me?"

     "Of course, madame. Is...everything alright?" he asked.

     "I don't know...Do you think Logan is truly my brother?" she asked tentatively.

     "If I'm being honest, I'm afraid I must admit that a ghastly man such as him was never truly a brother to you," he said slowly. "But with Auroran allies, I've no doubt that now you're ready to defeat him," he assured.

     "Yes, but...that's not what I meant." She shook her head. "I meant...do you think he could be adopted? That we're not truly blood?"

     "Oh wouldn't that be lovely if it were true," he remarked. "I daresay it's...difficult to suffer with the knowledge of being related to such a tyrant." 

     "It is," she admitted in honesty. "But...that's just it, Jasper. He and I are nothing alike. I mean it's obvious the Hero of Bowerstone was my father. Walter said once that Heroic abilities can be passed down through blood. But Logan?" She snorted. "He's no Hero, Jasper. You served our mother and father for some time before you were tasked with looking after me. Do you think it's possible? I mean, is there any evidence?"

     "You're quite serious about this, aren't you?" he asked. She nodded.

     "I am. I just...I can't wrap my head around it. He's nothing like our father...he's nothing like our mother, like me, he's...I don't know. I'm just being silly, aren't I?"

     "In truth, madame, Sir Walter would be the person to ask of such delicate matters. As you well know, he was the closest to your father in his youth," he shrugged.

     Jasper made a point. Oh such a silly thing to ask about, but...it was just hard to believe that she could be related to such a man that would abandon Aurora to such horrors. She never thought him capable of it, but added to the suffering he caused Albion, it surprised her less and less. He was right. Logan had always been right. She never knew him at all, did she?

     But yet again, after everything that happened, there were a lot of questions Adalia had for Logan when next she had him at gunpoint.


End file.
